Crack Magazine’s Festival Guide 2025

With over 50 programmes and events taking place over ten days in January, the London Short Film Festival spotlights the best of this year’s independent cinema, emerging filmmakers and new short films, alongside a curated events schedule focused on both the history of film and the industry today. Discussions will be anchored by this year’s theme, ‘Spaces’, exploring dedicated third spaces for creativity and culture – and what we lose when they close.

Three days of good music in Mexico is a compelling prospect at any time of the year, but in February? Boutique festival Carnaval de Bahidorá is an underrated no-brainer for those looking to escape the last days of Winter. Held at Las Estacas park in Morelos, just a two-hour drive from Mexico City, the site sits right by the bright turquoise Yautepec River in a secluded location surrounded by nature. It all sounds blissful, but the line-up makes clear this is a festival that parties hard – think heavyweights like Ben UFO, Pearson Sound, Pangaea, Joy Orbison and Jeff Mills, alongside the likes of Logic1000, ISAbella, SoFTT and Octo Octa b2b Eris Drew.

AVA London’s three-day programme pairs all the gloss of an industry conference with great taste and a true understanding of how to put on a good party. Catch live shows and sets from Erika de Casier and Mechatok at Hackney’s EartH on Thursday, Ryoji Ikeda, Marcel Dettmann and EMA on Friday at HERE, and LSDXOXO on Saturday at The Cause. The daytime schedule also features live a conversation with FKA twigs, a mixing masterclass with Tom Elmhirst and much more.

Every spring since 2011, a carefully considered yet creatively bananas line-up has convened in this seaside city for a weekend of cultural expansion – and that tradition continues in 2025. Among the cutting-edge highlights at this year’s Rewire are Arooj Aftab; Colin Stetson and Self, with their singular approaches to emotional catharsis; spectral post-rockers Moin; ambient jazz explorers Nala Sinephro and SML; drone queen Kali Malone with Stephen O’Malley; and a club-friendly thread that includes Two Shell, De Schurmann and DJ Plead b2b with Roxymore. We could go on…

Not just named after Trish Keenan’s retro-futurists, this Brussels event also channels that group’s spirit of experimentation. Its eighth edition brims with intrigue, as guest curators Anna von Hausswolff, Backxwash and Colin Stetson cast a brooding influence over a bill that features Tim Hecker, industrial art-punks Dame Area, Cairo producer El Kontessa, bubbling producer De Schuurman and avant-rockers Kassie Krut. International Anthem will also celebrate 11 years with shows from Ben LaMar Gay, SML and Jeremiah Chiu. What more do you need?